Ying Ya had never felt such pressure. It made his mind and body tremble. It was as if a great demon king was slowly approaching from the distance, sending forth a vast amount of pressure that weighed down on him.
‘What a horrible pressure…’ he thought, taking a deep breath.
Ying Ya was not the only one who felt that. Even Ye Yun, the Nether Chef genius, was trembling. Slowly, he glanced back over his shoulder. He wondered what existence could emanate such terrible pressure.
As he turned around, he saw the source of the pressure.
It came from a young man, who wore a striped red-and-white chef’s robe and was climbing up the stairway one step at a time. His face was expressionless, his eyes and hair black, and his body tall and slim. Although he was not climbing fast, he kept a steady pace. Moreover, the length of time he stayed on each step was the same. He didn’t even stop on the tenth step, which meant the question on the tenth step was nothing to him. He had solved it instantly.
Ying Ya and Ye Yun were competitors, but at this moment, they both felt the same terrible pressure.
Lub-dub! Lub-dub!
The Divine Chef’s Heart of Cooking Path kept on beating, releasing tremendous pressure that permeated the whole space and weighed down on everyone’s shoulders.
Realm Lord Di Tai was slower because he was cautious and didn’t dare to make any mistakes. This Stairway of Culinary Arts was only the first test of the Divine Chef’s inheritance, but he had spent almost all his energy.
Bu Fang soon overtook him.
The realm lord looked up at Bu Fang and nodded.
Bu Fang gave him a faint smile and continued climbing, heading toward Ying Ya and Ye Yun, who had reached above the fiftieth step.
Although he was chasing them, he kept a steady pace, not fast nor slow. However, it was this kind of pace that made others feel the pressure.
Ying Ya and Ye Yun both took deep breaths at the same time. They could tell that Bu Fang was from the Immortal Cooking Realm, but they never knew that the realm had such a talented immortal chef.
They felt that the pressure had become greater.
Ying Ya turned around without hesitation and began to devote himself to climbing. His goal was to be the first one who reached the top of the stairway.
Ye Yun’s goal was naturally the same as Ying Ya’s. Both of them were geniuses, men who did not yield easily, and they would not let others surpass them.
They took another step at the same time, and the white jade stairway seemed to flash with a jade-like luster.
The eightieth step, the ninetieth step…
Ying Ya was getting faster and faster, and perhaps because of his faith, he was also faster at solving questions. Moreover, as he began to get used to the pressure from the Heart of Cooking Path, he became more and more comfortable with the climb.
The competition between Ying Ya and Ye Yun was the most intense. They were moving at almost the same speed, climbing at the same time and solving questions at the same time.
They went all the way up and didn’t stop.
The hundredth step was a watershed. When they came to it, the pressure suddenly doubled. It was as if a mountain had been added to their shoulders, causing their knees to be slightly bent under the weight.
Without question, the higher they climbed and the closer they got to the Heart of Cooking Path, the greater the pressure.
“I’ll definitely get the Divine Chef’s inheritance!” Ying Ya’s hair fluttered as he stepped up and climbed three steps at once.
Ye Yun followed closely behind him. His cold voice rang through the air as he said, “You are a thief who has stolen your cooking skills from my Nether Chef Clan! What qualifications do you have to get the Divine Chef’s inheritance?!”
Ying Ya burst out laughing, his laughter full of sarcasm. He ignored Ye Yun’s jab and continued to climb.
This made Ye Yun’s face flush with anger. “It’s still hard to tell who will emerge victorious!” he roared, took another step, and bolted up the stairway like an arrow.
After the hundredth step, they climbed up to the hundredth and one, the hundredth and two, the hundredth and three…
They raced to reach the higher steps, ignoring the increasing pressure.
Bu Fang still kept his steady pace, neither too fast nor too slow.
The questions about culinary arts were simple and easy, and he had solved them almost instantly. However, the pressure was real. For some reason, the system had retracted the anti-pressure ability, so Bu Fang was facing the full pressure by himself. At this moment, his Heart of Cooking Path was shivering and unleashing a vast aura to resist the Divine Chef’s pressure.
Up above, Ye Yun and Ying Ya were competing fiercely, while behind them, Bu Fang climbed at a steady pace.
City Lord Meng Qi was about to give up. Her culinary talent was good, but it was only good. She knew what she was capable of, and she was not a competitive person, so she just climbed along very slowly. She was more concerned with the competition at the top of the stairway.
When she saw how fast those geniuses could climb the stairway, she gasped. Only when one was in the same competitive environment as geniuses could one truly feel the terrible pressure from them. It was not for nothing that they were called geniuses.
Suddenly, Meng Qi’s pupils constricted, and she sucked in a cold breath. At that moment, she noticed Bu Fang, who was climbing up at a steady pace not far behind Ying Ya and Ye Yun.
“Is Bu Fang’s talent so amazing as well?”
After climbing up the hundredth step, Meng Qi could feel how tremendous the pressure on her shoulders was. It was worth noting that she was a Qilin Chef. She knew that the higher they climbed, the greater the pressure.
…
Ye Yun and Ying Ya were sprinting toward the three-hundredth step. They were already gasping for breath. At this height, the pressure on their shoulders made it difficult for them to breathe, and the questions about culinary arts were getting more and more tricky. Now, it took them a long time to solve each question.
The talent grading of the stairway had finally appeared. Every hundredth step was a critical turning point.
When they reached the three-hundredth step, Ying Ya and Ye Yun finally stopped. There was a great deal of confusion on their faces. They frowned and racked their brains, trying to solve the question.
It took them a lot more time than before to answer the question. When they finally solved it, they looked up almost at the same time and saw the fighting spirit in each other’s eyes. Then, they turned around and glanced behind them, and what they saw frightened them.
It was an expressionless face. The man calmly looked at them. His face wasn’t flushed, and it seemed his heart wasn’t racing.
It’s the young man from the Immortal Cooking Realm!
Ying Ya took a deep breath and felt a sudden increase in pressure. It was as if the shadow of an invisible great demon king was slowly enveloping him.
Without hesitation, Ying Ya and Ye Yun turned and continued their climb, their chests heaving visibly.
Tap. Tap.
One step at a time, they climbed the stairway. The higher they climbed, the stronger the pressure was.
Beads of sweat dotted Ying Ya’s forehead. When he finally reached the four-hundredth step, he turned around excitedly, thinking that he should have left the young man far behind. However, as soon as he glanced back over his shoulder, he saw the young man’s expressionless face once again.
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Ying Ya almost coughed out a mouthful of blood. ‘Why can this guy still follow me? Can’t he feel the pressure?’ He felt as if a shadow had fallen over his heart.
Ye Yun felt the same. As a gifted Nether Chef, he had absolute confidence in his culinary talents. However, the appearance of Ying Ya and Bu Fang began to shake his confidence.
“No! I won’t give up!” He slapped his hands on the step like a madman and continued to climb. Soon, he reached the four-hundredth step, and he didn’t stop there.
When Ye Yun finally reached the five-hundredth step, he was panting violently, his clothes soaked with sweat.
At this moment, Ying Ya had also reached the same step. They exchanged a glance, then turned around and glanced back over their shoulders at the same time.
Immediately, they saw Bu Fang, who was still wearing the same expressionless face. That face seemed to grow larger and larger in their eyes until it became the shadow that enveloped their hearts.
‘I can’t believe this guy hasn’t fallen behind…’
‘F*ck… Can he not be so frightening?!’
However, they were relieved when they noticed the sweat on Bu Fang’s forehead, and his mouth was opening and closing, panting. Clearly, he was tired too after climbing to this height.
Nevertheless, it was not enough. For the honor of the Nine Revolution Nether Chef Clan, Ye Yun vowed that he would leave Bu Fang far behind him. He opened his mouth and growled, then climbed up the steps on his hands and feet as if he were a gecko.
At the five-hundredth step, the pressure was so tremendous that it could almost burst one’s heart. Ye Yun’s Heart of Cooking Path was so compressed that it seemed to have stopped beating.
The Divine Chef’s Heart of Cooking Path was indeed extraordinary.
At the six-hundredth step, the stairway’s color changed from white to gold. The height was above the clouds, and when one looked down from here, one could only see the long flight of steps. The skeletons knelt beneath the stairway were no longer visible.
When a person reached this height, he or she would be mentally and physically exhausted.
The appearance of the golden stairway meant that they had passed the first test, if they could climb up and reach it.
The Divine Chef’s seven-holed Heart of Cooking Path was shining brilliantly at the top of the stairway, casting radiant rays down. There were nine hundred and ninety-nine steps, and one had only to step on the thousandth step to enter the Heart of Cooking Path.
Of course, at their current state, no one could do that.
Ying Ya clenched his jaws so hard that blood was spraying out from his gums. He climbed on his hands and feet, his clothes pressed tightly against his body.
At the five-hundred-and-eightieth step…
After climbing to this step, Ying Ya and Ye Yun immediately lay down. They needed to take a break. With great difficulty, they turned their heads and looked back down. What they saw made their pupils constrict, and they felt as if they were shrouded in a freezing chill.
Bu Fang was standing on the step behind them, panting softly.
“Why is he still here?”
“How can this guy keep up with us?!”
Ying Ya and Ye Yun both felt a little desperate. They couldn’t believe that they hadn’t been able to shake off Bu Fang.
A fit of rage seized them.
Ying Ya growled. Blood poured out from his nostrils and mouth, spilling onto the white jade steps as he climbed again on his hands and feet.
Five-hundred-and-ninetieth step…
Six-hundredth step!
As soon as they reached the six-hundredth step, Ying Ya and Ye Yun were completely immobile. The terrible pressure of culinary arts poured from above and pressed them hard to the ground. They couldn’t open their eyes, and their bodies and minds were shivering.
Could they still climb higher? Impossible.
Moreover, they had reached the six-hundredth step, which was also the golden stairway. Didn’t that mean they passed the first test? They didn’t need to climb higher.
There were four hundred steps after the six-hundredth step, and the pressure on each step increased exponentially. After all, every additional step one climbed, the closer one was to the Divine Chef’s Heart of Cooking Path.
The air was filled with loud gasps.
Ying Ya and Ye Yun lay motionless on the six-hundredth step. They didn’t want to move at all, and they didn’t have any confidence that they could climb higher than this.
Tap.
With great difficulty, they opened their eyes and saw a foot step up beside them.
It was Bu Fang. His arms fell at his sides, while beads of sweat rolled off his forehead and fell to the stairway. Even he felt a tremendous amount of pressure at the six-hundredth step.
He rolled his eyes and gave Ye Yun and Ying Ya a sideways glance. Then, he twitched the corner of his mouth with a hint of contempt on his face.
“Just give up… If you climb further up, you will be crushed to death by the Divine Chef’s pressure!” said Ying Ya as he looked at Bu Fang. Blood trickled down from his nostrils and mouth.
“You’ve passed the test when reaching this step…”
“It’s beyond our expectation that you can come up here…”
Bu Fang gasped for breath and moved his eyes back to look at the towering stairway, gazing at the Divine Chef’s heart that kept beating and pumping enormous pressure at the top.
Slowly, he lifted a leg and climbed another step.
That shocked Ying Ya and Ye Yun.
“It’s nothing but the pressure of culinary arts. Why should I be afraid of it? If you want to set foot on the top of the Culinary Path, you should go all the way up, tear open the Divine Chef’s heart, and look at what’s inside!” Bu Fang’s faint voice rang out, and it struck Ying Ya and Ye Yun like lightning.
‘Why… Why does this young man still want to climb further? The pressure up there will be strong enough to kill him, or he may even be hit by it and fall to the bottom. It’s just not worth the risk… Why can’t he just be content with what he has achieved now?!’
Ying Ya and Ye Yun fell silent. They just watched blankly as Bu Fang continued to climb up the steps, waiting to see when the pressure would push him off the stairway.
However, what made them feel incredible was that Bu Fang climbed all the way up against the pressure, as if his body was supported by an indomitable will!
Soon, he reached the seven-hundredth step, then the eight-hundredth…
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The moment Bu Fang reached the nine-hundredth step, the beating of the Heart of Cooking Path became as long as thunderclaps!